VacationSelector
The Palais des Papes and the cathedral, Avignon
AvignonThe Palais des Papes and the cathedral
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Avignon by BlueBreezeWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Avignon or Samarkand?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Avignon for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Avignon’s own page.

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Samarkand’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Avignon 22, Samarkand 4: Avignon leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Avignon 57, Samarkand 54: Avignon leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Avignon 69, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Avignon 30, Samarkand 14: Avignon leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Avignon 70, Samarkand 40: Avignon leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Avignon 92, Samarkand 72: Avignon leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Avignon 45, Samarkand 30: Avignon leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Avignon 62, Samarkand 58: Avignon leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Avignon 38, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Avignon 44, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Avignon 68, Samarkand 24: Avignon leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Avignon 35, Samarkand 32: Avignon leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Avignon and Samarkand.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Avignon
Best match
53match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Avignon in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
24 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AvignonSamarkand

Where the figures come from

Avignon has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Avignon's sunshine is measured 65 km from the centre, at Marseille / Marignane.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Avignon: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Avignon / Morières-lès-Avignon (8.6 km from centre). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAvignonSamarkand
Official languageFrenchUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m702 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)65 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAvignonSamarkand
City population92,188546,303
People per km²1,4205,058
Museums within 10 km1111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Avignon or Samarkand somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.